The Model T: A Centennial History by Robert Casey

Abstract

116 MichiganHistoricalReview survival ofNative Peoples, cultures, and nations: their struggle was not invain (p. 173). Perhaps, however, this "war" is not entirely over. In a thought-provoking afterword, Calloway ruminates on how the past continues to influence the present, particularly through ongoing batdes over history itself.The contest forAmerica's heart and soul continues, he avers, in debates over whose voices, whose history, and which of the competing and alternative versions of the past will prevail. Laura Keenan Spero University of Pennsylvania Robert Casey. TheModelT: A CentennialHistory. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Pp. 148. Drawings. Illustrations. Index. Photographs. Suggestions for furtherreading. Cloth, $24.95. Toward the end of 1908 the firstproduction models of theModel T clattered out of the Ford Motor Company's small factory on Piquette Avenue in Detroit. A century later, Robert Casey's The Model T: A CentennialHistory provides us with a vivid description of theModel T, the way it was produced, and the people who made itall happen. The book begins with a brief description of theUnited States in the early twentieth century, a country with much of its population living in widely scattered towns, villages, and farmsteads. The U.S. had extensive railroad trackage but a totally inadequate road and highway network. It was a relative newcomer to automobile production and its small industry made cars thatwere either adequate and expensive or cheap and nasty. After a brief review of the events that led to the formation of the Ford Motor Company and a description of its early products, theModel T takes center stage as the first car to combine an acceptable level of performance with a low price. These virtues were derived from the car's employment of advanced automotive technologies. Although theywere not invented by Ford and his associates, innovations like a detachable cylinder head, a planetary gearbox, and the extensive use of vanadium steel combined tomake theModel T a thoroughly advanced vehicle by early-twentieth-century standards. As innovative as theModel T was, the manner inwhich itwas produced was nothing short of revolutionary, and Casey effectively describes the rapidly evolving production methods employed by the Ford Motor Company. Although themoving assembly line is usually BookReviews 111 taken to be the quintessence of what came to be called Fordism, Casey describes prior successful efforts at boosting production efficiency, noting that Model T production increased to itsgreatest extent beforethe introduction of the assembly line. Mass production requires mass consumption, and formany years theModel T was the consumption item par excellence. Because of its reputation for ruggedness, reliability, and low cost, theModel T almost sold itself.But these virtues were accompanied by sales campaigns that stressed values conferred by automobiles, such as freedom, reliability, comfort, and even women's emancipation. This is a well-told story, which is complemented by the author's inclusion of contemporary advertisements for theModel T. In addition to its innate attributes, theModel T traded on the image of Henry Ford himself as a frugal, self-educated champion of the common man. But by the early 1920s, Ford's company was severely hobbled by its founder's willful refusal to recognize that his customers could purchase far better cars for just a few additional dollars. The growing obsolescence of the Model T isdriven home in a chapter where Casey describes the challenges and annoyances of driving aModel T. The book's concluding chapter puts theModel T in a larger historical context, reflecting on its long-term influence on production, consumption, remuneration, and worker skills. Profusely illustratedwith contemporary photographs, drawings, and artwork,TheModel T:A Centennial History v$> that rare automotive book that will appeal to scholars and buffs alike. RudiVolti Pitzer College Sally H. Clarke. Trust and Power: Consumers, the Modern Corporation, and the Making of theUnited StatesAutomobile Market. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. 296. Appendix. Figures. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Tables. Cloth, $56.00. SallyH. Clarke's Trust andPower: Consumers, the Modern Corporation, and the Making ofthe United States AutomobileMarket is a fresh,multidisciplinary assessment of the rise of theAmerican automobile industry.Drawing on a host of archival resources, including many inMichigan, Clarke argues that rather than earning consumers' trust, automobile makers wielded their power in a number...